The Twelfth Arrow
by Celia25
Summary: Will Robin and Regina find their happy ending in Storybrooke, without their memories of the previous year? Will they be able to face together an extraordinary situation under those circumstances? The twelfth arrow might be the clue. Written for Day 5 OQ Happy Ending 2018: Cursed Happy Ending


_**Written for Day 5 of OQ Happy Ending Week-2018: Cursed Happy Ending.**_

 _ **Unbetaed ... I apologize for the mistakes.**_

 _ **Hope you enjoy, and let me know what you think**_!

* * *

Regina Mills always thought that cursing someone was the perfect revenge on those who had brought her misery. And she has been damn right.

Now that she has a taste of what it feels like, she hopes the people in Storybrooke can forgive her for cursing them for twenty-eight years because being cursed was worse than what she could have imagined.

And, it seems she must have pissed someone off really bad, when her last memories are Henry and Emma, leaving the town line with her memories, as she struggles to save the people of Storybrooke by sending them to the Enchanted Forest, but she wakes up in her bed, in her mansion, with no memories of the previous year.

But, how does she even know it's been a year? Well, she looks open-mouthed at the evidence: a prominent belly showing without any doubt a very advanced pregnancy, which indicates she was in the Enchanted Forest for at least a year.

She is astonished, to say the least, and first thinks it's a dream. Then, after touching her abdomen and feeling her baby's movements for the first time (well, the first time that she remembers), she can't believe this has happened. It seems she found a way to break the curse that doomed her to infertility.

Next, fear begins to flow through her body because she has never been pregnant before, not that far anyway, and she needs to know that her baby is healthy.

Afterward, she notices she's grasping something in her hand; and, when she takes a look, she's even more surprised. It's an arrow. Why would she have an arrow? Not once she'd had anything like that. She remembers Henry pleading for archery lessons, but she'd never granted permission.

At the thought of her son, a hundred questions arise in her mind. Will she see him again? Is he in Storybrooke? How would he react when he finds out her mother is pregnant? Will he remember her? If she succeeded with her plan, and it seems she did, Henry will not know who she is.

Definitely, she must have made someone very angry during the last year, and now she's paying the price.

After some time, she accepts her new reality, and as soon she does, anger begins to fill her. Someone has ripped away from her memories, experiences of the prior months, and her baby's father.

The father! Shit! This is so fucked up.

This pregnancy means she found love again. She would never have been so careless to let some random guy knock her up. Well, technically she couldn't have gotten pregnant in the first place, so it is still possible that her baby's father was just a one night stand. However, she chooses to believe this man had been special. She would have conjured a condom if it would have been just for the sex, with all those STD's and no antibiotics, unprotected sex would have been almost a death sentence in the Enchanted Forest.

So, it seems she had trusted this man, whoever he is.

She thinks she needs to talk to someone, check if she's the only one with no memories in the whole town. She thinks, for a moment, that Snow and Charming can give her some insight into what's happening, but after a phone call and finding out the _charmings_ are just as confused as she is, she feels hopeless. This sensation, however, doesn't last much because as soon as Snow and David ask her why she's so certain that they'd been in the Enchanted Forest for a year, Regina tells them she has a situation they needed to know, and it would be better to talk in person.

Regina opens the door, dressed only in a man's shirt. She has just faced another reality: she has nothing to wear that'd fit a nine-month pregnant woman. She thanks God for letting her find this shirt, she thinks it must have been Graham's, and that it must have remained in her closet unnoticed to her because she remembered very well getting rid of anything that would remind her of him.

As bad as this situation is, Regina can't help but smile at Snow and David's expressions when they see her. What wouldn't she give to have a camera at hand so that she could have captured their faces for posterity!

"Regina! You're pregnant!" says Snow as soon as they're inside the house.

"Tell me something I don't know," answers Regina coldly and before they can ask the obvious, she decides it's better to reveal it herself "and before you begin interrogating me, I don't know exactly how far along I am, and who the father is."

"So, you didn't cast the curse," replies David looking at Regina's belly.

"Yeah, Charming, why would I cast a curse that would make half the people in Storybrooke laugh at me; and, the other half, feel sorry for me?"

Snow takes one of Regina's hands, holds it tightly, and adds "Regina, there's nothing to be ashamed of. This means there's someone that loved you with whom you decided to have this child. We'll find him."

"Yes. I will, and I will find the one who cursed us if it is the last thing I do," answers Regina.

"I'm sure you will, but after a visit to the doctor," says Snow as she dials the hospital number to book an appointment.

######

Regina has always been a strong and brave woman, and if anyone has doubted it before, after witnessing how she endures this situation, it has been proven that she can handle almost everything life throws at her.

And it isn't only that she can face almost everything, but the way in which she deals with it. She lets people think she is in control of any situation, even when she might not be. She's elegant, refined and has the poise and composure of a queen.

So, that's exactly how she decides to approach this situation.

Even, before going to the doctor and get checked (she thinks she'll have time for that later), she summons everyone in town to a meeting at the Town Hall. She enters, elegantly dressed in a maternity dress, walking confidently, as always, and when she hears the _ahs_ and _ohs_ that the audience let escape at the sight of her pregnant belly, she just takes the bull by the horns.

It seems she took care of herself during her pregnancy (or someone else did) because her belly and swollen breasts are the only signs that would give away her pregnancy. And this is evident for the people present, as she walks slowly and the sight of her from behind is almost as if she weren't pregnant.

She reaches the podium, clears her throat and begins "Good morning, fellow citizens of Storybrooke. As you are well aware, we lost a year of our memories, and we find ourselves in a complicated situation. For me, it's a little more complicated because, as you can see, I'm pregnant with no memories of the last year. So, I wanted to inform you I didn't cast this curse and I wanted to let you know that I swear to God that I'll find who cursed us and will make them pay."

She sees the smiles of most of them and watches how people exchange funny looks among them as if trying to discover who could have knocked up the Evil Queen.

She spots some new faces, people that haven't been there during the first curse and hopes the father of her baby is among these new residents, at least that way it would feel less awkward than thinking she had sex with Whale, Grumpy or Sidney …shit, those thoughts are making her feel goosebumps.

And as she thinks about the father of her baby, her gaze is drawn to the last row where she sees a man, that's been looking at her, with such intensity, since the beginning of the meeting, that almost has made her forget more than once what she was saying.

He smiles at her, she smiles back …and she leaves the meeting with his smile and dimples in her mind.

Robin can't comprehend what's happening to him. He's never had a thing for pregnant women. They've always developed in him admiration and tenderness, but not this.

This time has felt different from the instant he spotted her entering that meeting. He recognized her immediately. In this realm, she is the mayor. In their land, she was the Evil Queen.

Desire, fascination, passion, lust, curiosity, eagerness …those have been his feelings since he first laid eyes on her, and he feels like shit for reacting this way over a pregnant woman. He thinks she must have a husband somewhere and if he were that man, he would definitely beat the shit out of any bastard thinking like he is.

He sees her for the second time that same afternoon, walking outside the farmhouse, and can't help but approach her. He needs to talk to her, hear her voice again "Your Majesty, you should not be here by yourself …hmmm …this baby might come in any moment. Do you want me to call your husband?"

"Weren't you this morning at the Town Hall?" she asks, even though she already knows the answer "I told the whole town I don't remember a thing about last year, just to avoid intrusive questions, like this one, about a husband I certainly don't remember."

"Apologies milady, I was there this morning and I heard you, but I thought that whoever did this to us kept the families together. At least mine is," he clarifies. And it's the truth because just after being mesmerized by her beauty and strong personality, he thought it was a pity she was already taken.

"Good for you. I don't have any family. If it counts, I have a son somewhere that doesn't even remember me," she replies and continues talking before she has to hear again his apologies or, worst, his compassion. "It's late. You should go to your wife."

"I have no wife. My family is my son and me, and we woke up together here still remembering being father and son. I won't leave you here Your Majesty. Let me make you company until you get home," he adds, looking directly into her eyes as if trying to determine if it might be possible that he has known her before.

"I didn't catch your name," he hears her addressing him as he gets back to reality.

"Robin of Locksley, at your service," he responds and extends a hand to greet her, formally this time.

"The Thief," she says slowly, very slowly, that much slower that he gets to spot her tongue peeking between her lips.

Oh, man! He feels like shit again! How is he thinking of her tongue when she's carrying someone else's baby?

Robin pulls himself together and replies "I prefer Robin …and let me take my stuff so that I don't delay you."

He walks behind a tree and that's the moment where she notices it. He's taking a bow and a quiver full of arrows, arrows that are very much alike to the one she woke up holding the day before. He notices her face of surprise and says "It's better to be prepared. After all that we've been through, we don't know what we'll find here."

He sees her face of shock and knows something is wrong. "Your Majesty, what is it? Is it something I did or is it the baby? Are you okay?"

"No. It's just …do you think it's possible that we knew each other before? You know, from the year we don't remember. I woke up yesterday holding this." Regina shows him an arrow, the one she has been keeping inside her purse since she realized it could be the clue of her life during the past year.

As Robin examines the arrow, she adds "Please, call me Regina. I think we'd met before."

He smiles, showing beautiful dimples and a tender smile, and says "I don't want to frighten you, Regina, but this is one of my arrows. I arrange them in groups of twelve, and yesterday morning after waking up to this mess I realized one group had only eleven arrows. This is the twelfth."

"And, how do you know this is one of yours? Arrows are much alike. How do you recognize this one …" and she lifts the arrow she has "…as one of yours?"

"My arrows are branded. Not in vain I'm Robin Hood. Take a look," he responds as he shows her very little, almost imperceptible capital letters _R_ and _H_ near the top of the arrow. It's like a stamp, and after she has seen it, she hears him add "Definitely mine!"

######

She doesn´t know if he is talking about the arrow, about her or about her baby.

Regina is sure she has met the thief in the Enchanted Forest during the year no one seems to remember. She is absolutely certain of that, after the confirmation that she had one of his arrows with her. If this arrow isn't a message from herself to lead her towards someone special, she doesn't know what this is.

However, what she still hasn't unraveled is his role in her life. Was he a friend? It seems he could have been a good one. Was he a lover? It seems he could have been an excellent one. Was she in a relationship with him? If so, for how long? And the million dollar question: Was he the father of her baby?

She decides to let this mystery sort itself out, and give Robin the space it seems he wants in her life because it's evident for Regina that Robin wants to be near her in whatever capacity she would allow him to.

Regina is right. After their encounter in the farmhouse, and having faced the fact that she had one of his arrows, thoughts of her have invaded his head more often than not.

Robin is willing to receive whatever Regina can give. It doesn't matter to him she is about to give birth to someone else's child. In any other situation he would have stepped back, but in this bizarre one, he senses with every nerve of his body that he must give everything. He has been experiencing this insane attraction towards her, the need to protect her and her baby, to be near her for anything she could need or want, and confronts the idea that he wishes her child is his.

During the days that follow, he is by her side when she finds out Emma and Henry are in Storybrooke and that her son doesn't remember her. He accompanies her to meet Henry, knowing the heartbreak that encounter would bring her.

He comes along with her to the several meetings where they discuss the ways to break this curse and defeat the new villain in town, albeit they don't know who he (or she) is. Many theories are debated: true love's kiss, a remembering potion, Henry and his storybook, Emma and her light magic …but none of these seems to work.

It doesn't matter to Robin the deception they face, one time after another, in their struggle against this curse. He continues by her side, tireless.

Even though, he chooses to spend all the time he can with her and asks her to be present during her appointment with Dr. Whale where the doctor confirms a full term pregnancy and the signals that indicate the baby will be coming anytime. He doesn't leave her that day when he finds out how upset she is after Whale interrogates her about the baby's father. Whale has always been a jerk and still is.

Robin is surprised after she says "it's not that I can test the people of Storybrooke" and when she explains to him that in this land there is a way to confirm someone's paternity, he surprises her requesting to be tested because he needs to go with his gut this time.

She is stunned at his request and tells him he doesn't have to, that she never would demand that from him. That is the first time they kiss (that they can remember, anyway). It's a kiss of instinct and domesticity, and both of them wonder if this is something they've already done before because it, certainly, feels like it.

As they kiss Robin extends his arm to caress her cheek, and there's when she sees the second sign: his lion tattoo. She remembers that conversation with Tinkerbell years ago, he is her soulmate and she is his!

But, when she is about to tell him her latest discovery, she feels the first sign that labor has begun.

They rush to the hospital and not once, Robin leaves her side during labor, and he is with her the twelve hours it lasts. She doesn't feel embarrassed of her pain, sweat, cries (when pain is unbearable), and asks him to be by her side during the birth of her child. He isn't bothered at all at the sight of an intimate moment like this. He just holds her hands and kisses her head tenderly, until they hear the unmistakable cry of a newborn.

He hates even more the bastard that cursed them!

He comes back the next day, with a colorful bouquet of flowers and a pink balloon, something cute for a baby girl.

When he enters the room, he looks at Regina and she is glowing. She is nursing her baby, and it seems Robin's presence doesn't disturb her because she doesn't even attempt to cover her exposed breast.

There is familiarity and trust between them, and he can't explain how because they have known each other not more than a week.

She smiles when she watches him walk through the door, with both hands occupied holding her presents. "You are my soulmate, you know?" she says, trying to retake the conversation that was interrupted the day before after their kiss.

He just leans and kisses her on the lips, as if it was the most natural thing. "And you are mine," he adds.

He smiles at her showing his dimples, and she says "I want to show you something." She puts the baby on her lap and tickles her baby's lips, the baby smiles as a mere reflex and a little pair of dimples form in her cheeks, just like his.

"She has my dimples," says Robin with tears in his eyes.

"Yes, indeed. I …I think you are the father, Robin. I can feel it and I think the arrow I had was something you and I worked out to try to find each other at the last minute. There's no other explanation. I felt a pull towards you from the moment you smiled at me in that meeting …and I've been trying to put the dots together, even though there are parts I don't understand."

"I think the same and that's why I want to be tested to confirm my paternity. The doctor already took a sample from me this morning, and he only needs your permission to use a sample from the baby they already took for some ordinary tests."

"We don't need a test to confirm what we both already know," she says, and with that, they kiss with the firm belief that they are a family.

######

Weeks, months and a year pass by. Nobody has been able to break the curse yet, and people in Storybrooke still have a missing year in their lives. However, they have accepted and learned to live with the void the lack of memories causes.

They have decided to enjoy the new memories they began building since they returned, and to figure out the meaning of the ones that randomly have started to appear. Dr. Hooper has been vital in helping people understand these pieces, which appear out of nowhere, as images without context, and that are no other thing than memories of what they call the Missing Year.

For Robin and Regina, things are no different. They are focused on setting up new memories, along with Roland and their baby girl, and they succeed. They have also experienced these images that flash into their head when something triggers the part of their brain refusing to let their memories get out.

In the search for answers, they meet once a week with Snow and Charming, and other people in Storybrooke that lived in the castle during the Missing Year. They confront the images all of them have been experiencing, and with the help of Hook, and even Neal, the little time he was around, they begin to fill the voids of that year. Still, there are things they will never get to remember, and up to that moment the identity of the one who cursed them and took a year from their lives, remains a mystery.

For Henry, things are different. During a whole year, he has no memories of the extraordinary role Regina had in his life, nor about his grandparents or other the people in town. Regina, with Emma's help, doesn't cease trying to find something that would bring his memories back. With Belle's help (she's a bookworm, after all) they find the missing ingredient for the potion that will retrieve Henry's memories. And when he drinks the potion, and the memories of a life with Regina begin to appear, mother and son hug as they kiss, laugh, cry, and ask about each other lives over the past two years they've been separated.

In that precise instant images of Snow, David, Zelena, Robin and herself flash, one after the other _….There has to be another way to get there, Regina …Snow, there isn't. You know if there were I would have gone back to Henry? …Snow, we have to do this, you have to crush my heart …David, I won't lie this is going to hurt, but it will work …Did you really think you could enact Rumple's Dark curse and I wouldn't know about it? …How does a forgetting potion sound? …Did you need your memories in the new land? …Regina! Fast! Hold this tightly, this will bring us together. I'll recognize one of my arrows anywhere …Robin, what if we never find each other? You will never know our baby …We will find each other, trust me. Our love will remain, even if our memories are gone, and this arrow will be the first clue for the both of us..._

######

There are still missing pieces and they are well aware there will always be. However, the most significant piece, the twelfth arrow, now framed, hangs on a wall of Regina's family room -along with Robin and Regina's wedding picture and one of the complete family- as a silent witness that soulmates can endure everything, even the most extraordinary situations.

 _ **THE END**_


End file.
